During the 1970s, in conjunction with Dutch geologist Dr. Wim Kampschuur, the Tectosat Exploration System was developed,[3] using brittle fracture patterns found on satellite imagery as a means of better understanding mechanisms and consequences of plate tectonics.
Studies were undertaken on a continent-wide scale throughout Europe (including the Greenland-Norwegian basin), Africa, Arabia and parts of India, linking extensive, specially collected field data to satellite interpretation.
With the advent of the European Space Agency's radar satellites in the early 1990s, Press, in conjunction with Dr Geoff Lawrence, led NPA to develop Offshore Basin Screening using sea surface roughness patterns observed on radar imagery to detect slicks caused by traces of hydrocarbons seeping from the sea floor.
[4] This technique has become a universally recognised complimentary data source to seismic surveying and other offshore exploration tools, and is used by most of the world's major oil companies who draw on a global database compiled and maintained by CGG-NPA.
Growing availability of satellite radar during the 1990s led Press to focus NPA on developing methods using interferometric principles to detect small amounts of ground surface movement that remain difficult to survey with ground-based techniques.
Press is an experienced mountain and fell walker and his geological work provided the opportunity to travel in many wilderness areas of the world, which he continues.
Press is married to landscape artist Julia Corfe and they divide their time between rural Kent, the Yorkshire Dales and the French Pyrenees.